Stayed here for a conference. The hotel offers amazing city or mountain views. Rooms are predicatably furnished. Only complaint- the water pressure is so weak that it is unrealistic to expect a guest to have a satisfying shower or wash up at the sink. The hotel is Portland's first green hotel so they retrofitted the faucets to be low flow. Kudos for going green but come on guys, I have to get the soap off of my body. I have to stay in the shower twice as long thus using the same amount of water just to get soap off! The water is also soft which compounds the problem! Soft water takes even longer to remove soap! It was so agitating that I cannot recommend this hotel.

My stay here was very uneventful. The rooms were adequately appointed with all of the standard stuff. It was a comfortable temperature and not too loud.. It also had a lovely view from the balcony. For my purposes the location was ideal,. Unfortunately, besides the expected, there was nothing particularly remarkable about this hotel. The service was passable but a little indifferent and the room was far too expensive for the amenities provided. Finally, the hotel charged for Internet service, which I'm sure is chain policy, but disappointing nonetheless. Such an easy thing to provide to make your guests happy, especially considering almost all hotels offer it these days.

I just stayed at this hotel for a conference. I thought the room was very nice. I loved the bedding, including feather pillows and a down duvet. I thought the bathroom was nice too. I only found the blow dryer on packing up; it is in the closet! The people at the front desk were very friendly and helpful. I thought the food at the convention was surprisingly good. My only complaint was that my room was noisy. It was a room that had inside doors so you could connect two rooms. I could hear every word that the people in the next room were saying. The fitness center is very good with lots of choices for a workout.

We recently stayed at the DoubleTree by Hilton in Portland’s Lloyd District for a conference and then a training event. I’m going to separate the reviews into our personal stay experience, and the conference experience.

The Personal Experience
The hotel is very conveniently located to Portland’s TriMet MAX light rail station at Lloyd Center. The ride from Portland’s PDX Airport to the Lloyd Center stop on the MAX Red Line takes about 20 minutes and is a straight shot without any transfers or other complications. The MAX station at the airport is located on the lower level near the baggage claim area. A 2.5 hour adult ticket on the MAX costs $2.50 and is well worth the price. You can also get an all-day adult pass for $5.00. Lower prices are offered for 'Honored Persons' and 'Youth'. MAX runs about every 15 minutes. http://trimet.org/max/.

The hotel front desk staff were great, and our check-in was painless. The warm DoubleTree oatmeal cookies that we got with our room keys made it that much better. Our room was just OK. The room was quite large, with two queen beds, a desk, and a chest of drawers with a surprisingly small flatscreen TV. There was also a single armchair and ottoman. There was no other comfortable seating area in the room. There was a small balcony looking away from Lloyd Center Park toward the surrounding hills. I think the weather seals on the door must have been missing or damaged, because a fair amount of noise seemed to come through the window from outside. The window side of the room was also cool and a bit drafty. The room’s ventilation was otherwise lacking.

The HVAC system had independent control, always a good feature, but the built-in unit is the ceiling was noisy, with a fairly loud vibration when starting up or shutting down. The rattle was loud enough that we turned the system off at night.

The bedding was nice enough, but there were only feather pillows, with no other pillows available in the room. The bed had a down comforter that was nice feature. The bed itself was not very comfortable, and we both woke up sore every morning.

The bathroom was only OK, not what I expect from a hotel at the level of the DoubleTree. The bathroom was fitted with a single sink, with a tub and a telephone-style shower. The bathtub faucet valve was damaged, and the temperature adjustment worked backward to the way it was marked. For some this could be a safety issue. The towel rack for fresh towels was badly damaged. It was mounted inside the bathtub surround, and it looked like someone had grabbed it to prevent a fall and nearly torn the top shelf off the wall brackets. The other surprising thing missing from the bathroom was a hairdryer. The ventilation in the bathroom was not adequate, shown by the fogging of the walkout doors on the opposite side of the room after we had showered. This left the room feeling damp, combined with the drafty walkout to make the room feel chilly and damp. The room came with a iron and ironing board. Overall, the room looked and felt like it hadn’t been renovated for too long.

We had Room Service the first night. The service was great, and the wait staff very friendly. The food was OK, but not great. We had many better meals away from the hotel. Our biggest complaint with the menu was the lack of variety. Almost every dish was either heavy on butter or cheese, leaving few choices for anyone health conscious.

We had breakfast in the main hotel dining room, called the Multnomah Grill. The breakfast buffet is quite large, with a dull selection of hot foods including scrambled eggs, potatoes, and bacon or sausages. The usual biscuits and white gravy also available. A nice addition was Bob’s Red Mill oatmeal. On the cold side, there was a variety of cold cereals, wildberry smoothies, three flavours of yogurt, cottage cheese, breads and pastries. So, a big buffet, just nothing particularly imaginative. The service from the staff in the dining room was excellent, very attentive. The single best aspect of the dining room was the availability of breakfast starting at 5:00 a.m. Few other hotels that I’ve stayed in offer breakfast that early.

The hotel bar / lounge is called ‘Gather’. The food selections are the same as those in the Room Service menu, a subset of the Multnomah Grill menu. Gather also has some draught beers as well as the usual bottled beers and cocktails. The atmosphere is comfortable and inviting. They also have a private room at the back for private functions.

The hotel is one of DoubleTree's 'Green Hotels', and seeks to use sustainable approaches to the business.

The hotel is located across the street from Lloyd Park, a beautiful space during the day. Also next to the hotel is the Lloyd Center Mall, offering plenty of shopping for most. There is an active restaurant area a short walk from the hotel as well. I recommend Milo's City Café and the Blossoming Lotus (see separate reviews for these restaurants).

Overall, I’d give the hotel an ‘ok but not great’ rating from a personal stay perspective.

The Conference Perspective
The DoubleTree by Hilton Portland hotel was chosen for our conference by our local organizing team, and it was a good choice! The hotel has a large ballroom, the Lloyd Center Ballroom, plus a maximum of seven breakout rooms separated by air walls for flexibility in arrangements. The breakout rooms can be configured into two other ballrooms as desired. There is an Executive Meeting suite, but our event did not use this area or the second level meeting rooms. See the floor plans for more details: http://www.doubletreegreen.com/media/docs/floorplans/06_DTFloorplanCapacityChart.pdf

For breakout sessions, the rooms were a good size, and there wasn’t much sound bleed-through between rooms. Although we had a podium and microphone in each room, many of our presenters chose not to use the fixed mic. This probably helped the sound levels between rooms.

The lobby area is large and well suited to having a few small table-top booths, and it also includes a permanent reception/registration desk area close to the entry doors. We used the Lloyd Center Ballroom as our Exhibit Hall and Plenary meeting hall. We also served breaks and lunch to our attendees in this hall.

The Banquets Staff at the hotel did a great job for us, keeping the rooms tidy and serving the food on time. The staff was quiet and efficient at all times. Special requests were handled quickly and easily. The food costs were more reasonable than many of the hotels that we have used, allowing us to generate a better surplus than in previous years.

Our Sales person did an excellent job, working hard to get us a great deal on the room block, the space and the food. Overall, a job well done.

The food was good for this type of event. We served sweets and breads with coffee, tea, soft drinks and water at breaks, and boxed lunches. The boxed lunches are priced on par with similar hotels, but overpriced in terms of what is provided in my opinion. Considering the service that comes with these meals, this is not really an issue.

Overall, I’d give this Conference Center a ‘GREAT’ rating!